12 comments:

Well, I'm not old enough to remember SNL from that long ago (I watched in the early 90s), but as the former patient of a neurosurgeon, I definitely know about the value in keeping a sense of humor to lighten what can be a terribly serious situation... sometimes the silly comment or warped line of thinking or bad joke (on the doc's part) kept me from going off the deep end from nerves/stress.

Of course, we all know it's not funny for the patient, but that kind of gallows humor has probably kept many a healthcare professional from offing themself over the horror in the situation.

When I was on my 3rd year surgical clerkship in medical school, we had a postop visit on a patient who, years before, had suffered a stroke getting a cardiac catheterization. (Sadly, the heart cath was clean.) Since then, all he could say was something like "Baw." He had a wound drainage tube from the surgery and when I checked him, we noticed the collecting bulb had fallen off and he had serous drainage all over the place. He said, "Oh, shit." I said, "Oh my gosh, Mr. Smith, you just said Oh, Shit. Can you say it again?" He answered, "Baw." It sounds funny, I suppose, to tell the story, but it was one of the saddest moments I remember in medical school. The poor guy was verbally trapped. I feel sorry for your nice patient who never swears who now says "Fuck off" all the time. It must be torture for him.

And I'll bet you were just as deadpan as he was!! As tragic as it is, one must keep a sense of humor. My late grandmother had a number of strokes. We were fortunate in that she didn't curse and that her temperament wasn't affected until the very end, but it definitely helped to keep a sense of humor. Especially since she lived a long time and died in peace living at my mother's house.

Of course, the scariest part about that was when she and my late grandfather were helping my parents buy their house. There is one room papered in a deep maroon with white flowers. "Peggy? You can't change this room. This is the room where I'll come home to die." And so she did.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

Singing Foo!

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